does anyone have any advice or tips on how they maintance their roots? any twisting, looping, crocheting? letting them free-form?
i used to crochet my roots. i'd get a latch hook and feed the dread thru the root. i noticed this method works but a lot of times the hair pulls too tight and i get a big headache for a few days or small bumps from the irritated skin. is there any way to prevent this?
Stop any maintenance. All that maintenance just damages your locks. Crocheting rips your hairs into smaller and smaller pieces. In time the hairs at the tip of your locks will not be connected at all to your scalp. They will be connected to other broken hairs attached to others and others until they finally attach to your scalp. This weakens your locks so much that they can snap off just from their own weight. Crocheting also over tightens your hairs and can cause traction alopecia. This will lead to baldness if continued. Crocheting, because it over tightens your hair so much, also traps more water inside for longer. It can cause molding and mildew since the water has nowhere to go.
Twisting, also causes traction alopecia. Every time you twist, you are ripping hairs out of the roots. Just a few at a time. But over time, you can twist a lock right off. Ripping those hairs out at the root will also just cause more loose hairs that you feel need to be maintained.
Root flipping is bad because it winds your hair around itself. Instead of it tangling and knotting, where there is some bounce andsponginess to your lock, this makes them taught and unable to move. They will have a constant weaved look that will never go away. it also weaken syour locks just like crocheting does.
Just let them be. There is no reason to fix the hair at your root. It has to be there. As your locks grow longer, the new growth will need something to tangle and knot to. That's where the loose hairs come in. If you were to control every hair, or even a lot of them, your new growth would have nothing to snag, and they would grow in thinner and thinner. Eventually, you'd have a thick lock attached to a very thin root system. They would not be able to sustain the weight, and will just fall off themselves.
Also, those loose hairs protect your scalp from getting sunburned. When you separate your locks, you don't want to do it all the way to your scalp. Just enough so, that the body of the locks are not attached. They should always, always, be in a constant state of semi combined at your scalp
never ever do thart roots need no maintenance at all any root maintenance u do is harmfull and that can cause weak spots broken dreads traction alopecia and balding
leave the roots alone!
the way to prevent that is dont do that
thats 1 of the worse thihbts u cxan do
we all know dreadheashq recomends alot of the most destructive thinfs u can do to dreads well on his website he recomends this root flipping (interlocking) but calls iot crocheting (proving he doesnt have a clue what hes talking about) but on twitter he warns not to do it caue it cayuses gaps bumps and weak s[ots
the whole idesa of root maintenance is flawed and damaging
the idea is to pull the roots in tight so theres no loose hairs and s=gaps betweeb with scalp showing
this is traction alopecia in its early stages so your basicly intentionaly causing a scalp issue that can lead to widespread baldness
this is the result of root maintenance
What you are describing yourself as doing is not actually crochet but root flipping (pulling the dreadlock through a hole that you are creating in the roots to make them tighter.) This can eventually lead to traction alopecia as well as weakening the dreadlocks because of those holes you are putting in them. Check out the recovery forums to read some first hand accounts of what happened to members and how they recovered from some of the damage.
(the headache pain and irritation that you get from flipping your roots are the first signs that you are pulling your roots too tight and if this continues over a long period of time you can definitely start seeing gaps at your roots from hairs being pulled out that may never, ever grow back because of the stress on the scalp -this is traction alopecia)
Your roots will be loose for a long while while the recovery starts but they will tighten up over time with patience.
thank you guys for all the advice. i try to let them free form on their own. the only time i feel the need to flip my roots is when the hole at my root is big enough to fit my finger through. will that close and take care of itself over time? i'll upload a photo momentarily of what im talking about exactly.
yes ofcourse it will but takestime the roots will and should be looe up to a year
typicaly 3 inches loose eniygh to fir-=t 3 or more fingers thriugh that room is neecded to dread
when u flip the roots u remove tnbat movement space and stop the roots from dreading normaly u got to let them grow out and knot on their own u probly delayed that a long time
but when mature you still have 1.2 an inch loose at the roots thats enough to fit a finger through..thats where they should be
imagine u get an itch under a dread and u cant fit a finger through to scratch
not to mention to scrub the scalp and clean u]=it under the rots
u absoly=utely should be able to get a finger under the roots
